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Gilbert Stuart's First Portrait or 
Washington From Life 



GILIJI:K J- STUART'S FIRST PORTRAIT OF 
WASHINGTON FROM LIFE 

The Vaughan Picture Painted in 1795 



By 



Frederic Fairchii.d Sherman 




New "\'()r.k 
PRIVATKLY PRIN I HI) 

M C M X \ 1 1 



.SSS 



Copy rig /it 1922 ^ 
Frederic Fairchild Sherman 



©C1.A690554 
DEC 12 1922 




GEORGE WASHINGTON 



THE FIRST PAINTING MADE FROM LIFE IN 1795 BY GILBERT STUART 
KNOWN AS THE VAUGHAN PORTRAIT. PURCHASED FROM THE HARRISON 
COLLECTION IN 1912 BY THOMAS B.CLARKE 




iW#1>i^' 



I „., //', , '. 




GILBERT STUART'S FIRST PORTRAIT OF 
WASHINGTON FROM LIFE 

The Vaughan Picture Painted in 1795 

^HK late Charles Henry Hart who was probably the pre- 
eminent authority upon the works of Gilbert Stuart, 
wrote in 1914 "The Vaughan-Stuart-Washington is 
the iirst right side of the face Stuart-Washington I ever 
saw and the deep impression it made upon me, now 
nearly forty years ago, as being the true portrayal of Washington by 
Gilbert Stuart has grown and strengthened with time until I believe 
in it so deeply and sincerely that when I think of 'Stuart ; Washing- 
ton' I think of the Vaughan picture and not of the familiar Athenaeum 
head." And in the same letter he adds this interesting commentary 
upon Stuart's habits and methods of painting, "the treatment is so 
characteristic of his very best endeavors, it being painted so daintily in 
the flesh that he seems hardly to have touched the canvas with his 
brush, yet he did and just enough, and there is no painter who ever 
portra\-ed the human face who knew as well as he when his work should 
be left without another touch, and he left it, finished, or unfinished 
when he had reached that point. Of course it was only when he had 
the model before him that he could do this limning in this way." 

In a letter dated New York, No\ember 2nd, 1794, to his uncle 
Joseph Anthony of Philadelphia, Gilbert Stuart wrote "The object of 
my journey is only to secure a portrait of the President, and finish 
yours." The reference is unquestionably to the portrait commissioned 
by Samuel Vaughan of London, who was a friend of the President, 
and which Stuart painted from life in his studio at the Southeast cor- 
ner of Fifth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, in September, 1795. 
Rembrandt Peale who was painting Washington from life at the same 
time, wrote in 1859 after seeing the Vaughan portrait again, "It is the 
first original portrait painted by Stuart in 1795 at the same time that 
Washington sat to me." 

The portrait was taken to London in the late fall of 1795 and there 
Thomas Halloway, the English engraver, made a plate from it which 
is dated Novr. 2d. 1796 and appeared in Lavater's Physiognomy, Vol. 
HI, Part II, published in 1798. The lettering upon this plate, beside 
the name and the line giving the copyright date as above, reads "En- 



graved by T. Holloway from a picture painted by Mr. Stuart in 1795 
in the possession of Samuel Vaughan Esqr." No other engraved por- 
trait of Washington bj^ Gilbert Stuart bears so early a date. The paint- 
er knew of this engraving and he lived for more than thirty years after 
its publication but never offered any criticism whatever of it, though 
he vigorously denounced an engraving of one of his later full-length 
portraits of Washington made in England by Heath and published in 
1800. 

Samuel Vaughan for whom Stuart painted from life this first por- 
trait of Washington, which shows the right side of the face, was born 
in 1720 and died in England in 1802 and bequeathed it to William 
Vaughan, who was born in 1752 and died in 1850. Some time there- 
after Joseph Harrison the Philadelphia financier and art collector se- 
cured the painting from the executors of William Vaughan's estate and 
brought it to America. For many years it hung in his private gallery 
on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, and it was there that Rem- 
brandt Peale renewed his acquaintance with the picture — which he 
made a copy of to illustrate his lectures on the portraits of Washington. 
This copy made by Peale, purchased at the public sale of Peale's pic- 
tures in 1862, now hangs in the gallery of portraits in the New York 
Public Library. 

The Vaughan-Stuart-Washington was acquired by Mr. Thomas 
B. Clarke of New York at the sale of the pictures belonging to the Har- 
rison estate after thedeathof Joseph Harrison's widow, in 191 2. There 
are twelve other portraits, now undisputed, made by Gilbert Stuart 
from this original Vaughan picture, showing the right side of the Pres- 
ident's face, all of which are about the same size, none in fact measur- 
ing more than thirty by twenty-five inches. The list is as follows, the 
names being those of the first and last known owners of the pictures : 

1 Vaughan — Mr. Thomas B. Clarke, New York 

2 Lee — Morris 

3 Howard — Mrs. Willard Straight, New York 

4 Tucker — Mrs. George L. Rives, New York 

5 Sinclair — Hon. Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh 

6 Scott— Mr. Charles A. Munn, New York 

7 Coleman — Mr. G. Dawson Coleman, Philadelphia 

8 Hanson — Mr. Herbert L. Pratt, New York 

9 Parker — Hart 



10 Camperdown — Henr\- Cla\- Frick Collection, New York 

11 Kitchen — Perrv Mr. Arthur Meeker, Chicago 

12 Fisher — Mrs. George ¥. Tyler, Philadelphia 

1 3 Gibbs — Channing — Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 

The first eight following the Yaughan picture in the list closely 
resemble it and like it ha\e plain backgrounds. In the last four, cur- 
tains were added by Stuart in both red, green and drab colors in the 
backgrounds. All are like the original Vaughan picture in that they 
ha\e white linen jabots. The coats are all black sa\e in the Camper- 
down picture where instead it is brown. 



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SEVENTY- FIVE COPIES ONLY PRIVATELY 
PRINTED DURING NOVEMBER, MCMXXII 



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